New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus brings Pride concert to Albuquerque

The New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus is bringing its Pride concert to the heart of Central Avenue with a message meant to reach beyond the stage. Existence Is Resistance will play Friday, June 19 and Sunday, June 21 at The Hiland in Albuquerque, with tickets starting at $20, and the chorus is framing the program as a public statement about visibility, belonging and support during Pride Month.

Artistic director Aaron Howe has said the concert is meant as a social-justice response to what is happening in the country, not as a partisan event, while still recognizing that LGBTQ people are part of the political process and have a right to respond when laws threaten freedom and authenticity. That gives the show a civic edge that fits Albuquerque’s Pride season, where music and public gathering have long carried more than entertainment value.

The program mixes pop energy and message-driven staging, with songs by Kelly Clarkson, Foreigner, Chappell Roan and other artists. Stage director Robb Sisneros built the production around acceptance, belonging and authenticity, using dancers and lighting cues to reinforce the narrative, while Vanessa Patricks serves as a host and connector between the music and the story being told.

For Albuquerque audiences, the setting matters almost as much as the set list. The Hiland, at 4804 Central Avenue SE, opened on April 20, 1950 as a movie theater, and the concert lands in a corridor that has long helped define the city’s cultural life. A companion performance is scheduled Saturday, June 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe, where ticket sales opened Monday, April 27, at 10 a.m.

The broader context reaches back to the city’s first Pride gathering in 1976, when 25 people came together near Morningside Park. By 1977, the march had grown to more than 100 people, and Pridefest later moved from Morningside Park to the State Fairgrounds, drawing more than 5,000 people at its 25th anniversary. That history makes the chorus’s message feel rooted in local memory: arts spaces here have become places where identity is seen, argued over and celebrated in public.

The chorus says its mission is to foster an inclusive community through music, celebrate LGBTQ+ diversity, challenge stereotypes and promote equality. Howe has led the New Mexico Gay Men’s Chorus since 2010, and the group says it was one of the first choruses in the country to join GALA Choruses. Its work has also reached Taos, Las Cruces, Farmington and Los Alamos, underscoring that this Pride concert is part of a wider New Mexico presence, not a single-night show.